SPACE reports that the Dragon CRS-24 “cargo ship splashed down today (Jan. 24) in the Atlantic Ocean at 4:05 p.m. EST (2105 GMT), off the coast of Florida near Panama City.” The SpaceX cargo ship “returned nearly 5,000 pounds (2,267 kilograms) of science to Earth, including a ‘cytoskeleton’ that studies cell signaling in humans, and returning a 12-year-old light imaging microscope being retired after more than a decade of use in orbit.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Tag: lands
X-37B Lands at Kennedy Space Center after Spending 908 Days in Orbit
Aviation Week reported behind a paywall that the US Space Force “landed the X-37B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 12, completing a 908-day mission that set a new record for endurance while performing several classified and unclassified missions.” Space News reported that this was the “sixth mission of the crewless reusable plane, built by Boeing and jointly operated by the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.” On this mission, the “X-37B carried several U.S. military and NASA science experiments, including a Naval Research Laboratory project to capture sunlight and convert it into direct current electrical energy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-8, which remains in orbit. One of NASA’s experiments was the Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space. Scientists will use the data to understand the effects of the space environment on different types of materials. Another experiment was to investigate the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds.”
Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)